Tag Archives: legal

Fishing Community Mayor, Top Officials Off the Hook in Retaliation Claims

The mayor and other city officials in the fishing community of Gloucester, Massachusetts are protected under qualified immunity against claims by the city’s harbormaster that they violated his First Amendment rights. The harbormaster sued the mayor, city solicitor, chief administrative officer and human resources officer for allegedly violating his free speech rights when they retaliated against him because of expert witness testimony he gave as a private consultant. The First Circuit Court of Appeals said the officials are protected because as public officials they had reasonable concerns that the harbormaster’s testimony against a local boat captain would damage the city’s reputation and relations with the Gloucester fishing community. more, >>click to read<< 07:39

Lawyers Line Up to Smash Atlantic Coast Offshore Wind Farm Projects

Big spending Joe Biden wants to squander untold $billions of taxpayer’s hard-earned on wind power, including thousands of turbines to be planted across the pristine and productive fisheries situated off the New England and mid-Atlantic coasts. Fishermen are, quite rightly, already up in arms, determined to prevent the mindless destruction of the marine environment and, with it, their livelihoods. It’s an outrage, to be sure. And Atlantic coast fishermen are not alone in their sense of fury. David Stevenson takes a look at a lawsuit being pursued by pro-environment and pro-community residents from Nantucket against one of Biden’s threatened monstrosities. >click to read< 09:32

Judge Drops Shinnecock Fishermen’s Federal Lawsuit

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by three Shinnecock Indian Nation fishermen who have fought to protect their indigenous fishing rights in eastern Long Island. David Taobi Silva, Jonathan Smith and Gerrod Smith were seeking $102 million in punitive damages, as well as temporary and permanent injunctions to end what they call racial discriminatory practices by state and local law enforcement. “[The men had] not put forward sufficient evidence to establish that the state proceeding is motivated by a desire to harass or is conducted in bad faith,” U.S. District Court Judge Sandra Feurestein said in her ruling. >click to read< 15:02